Israel must lift blockade of Gaza immediately: UN chief

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday demanded that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately in the wake of a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Speaking on his return from visits to Brazil, Malawi and Uganda, Ban told reporters that the underlying problem behind Monday’s events was the long-running, crippling Israeli siege of Gaza, which he described as “counter-productive, unsustainable and wrong.”